Birthday Surprise
by hana-to-mame
Summary: Mike's birthday comes and goes without anyone noticing.  Harvey finds this unacceptable and sets out to remedy the situation.  Slash.


**Birthday Surprise (A Suits oneshot)**

**Rated: T**

**Pairing: Harvey/Mike**

**Summary: Mike's birthday comes and goes without anyone noticing. Harvey finds this unacceptable and sets out to remedy the situation. Slash.**

**Posted 5 December 2011**

Mike sat down at his cubicle, intending to begin sifting through the stack of files Louis had just given him. But out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something sitting next to his keyboard.

A box.

It was smallish, wrapped in a sinister, glittery gold paper, and had a matching bow sitting atop it. He glared at it for a moment, before leaning closer and inspecting it. He looked around before gingerly lifting it with his fingers. There were no tags to identify who it was from. Or who it was to, for that matter.

He put the box back down. He didn't like it, the way it's shiny wrapping seemed to tease him, telling him that whatever it was concealing was too good for him.

Looking around again, trying to come up with someone he could ask about the ominous package. He just wanted to know who put it there, if anyone had seen someone by his desk before he got there. But all he saw was a crowd of other associates who happened to despise him, and would probably lie to him if they answered him at all.

So he stood up, carrying it discreetly by his side so no one would see him with it. He took it to the lost-and-found bin, placing it between a Haruki Murakami novel and a blow-dryer. He didn't look back as he walked away from the demonic box. He didn't know who left it there, or why they would put it on his desk in the first place. _Maybe__it__was__a__prank_, he thought. It wasn't like that hadn't happened before, but he still didn't appreciate the empty gift card envelopes, satchels of gravel, and other things he'd received in years past.

He didn't think it was a prank, though. It wasn't a holiday, and no one knew his birthday had just been last week, so he figured someone had just left it on his desk by accident. That had to be it, as strange and improbable as it sounded.

X

"Mike," Harvey's voice greeted his ears at the end of the day.

"What are you doing here?" Mike asked. Everyone else had already gone home, except for a few nameless stragglers peppered throughout the building.

Harvey scanned Mike's desk for a second before meeting Mike's eyes. "Wasn't there a present here this morning?"

"Yeah... Why? Was it yours?"

"No-"

Mike interrupted him. "Was I supposed to bring it to you? Or was it for a client or something? I knew I should have asked someone..."

"Mike," Harvey stopped him, "It wasn't mine. It was yours."

"Mine?" Mike asked. The concept was completely alien to him.

"Yes. What did you do with it?"

"I... wait, what was it for?"

"It was for you?"

"But... why?"

Harvey looked at him, unable to figure out why Mike seemed so confused. "It was a birthday gift."

"My birthday was last week..."

"I know, the gift was late but I didn't know it was your birthday. I just happened to see it while looking through your file, and-"

"Wait..." Mike stood, holding his hand up for Harvey to stop talking. "It was from _you_?"

Harvey nodded. "Yes. But you still haven't answered my question. What did you do with it? Did you open it?"

"No. I took it to the lost-and-found."

"What? Why would you do that?"

"I didn't think it was for me." Mike admitted quietly.

"It was on _your_ desk."

"Yeah, but there was no label on it... so I thought someone set it down and forgot about it. Either that or it was a prank, and I really wasn't in the mood for a container of earth worms or a box of soda tabs, so..."

"What are you talking about?"

Mike sighed softly. "Harvey, there's a reason I never told anyone here when my birthday is. A few reasons, actually. One is that I really don't celebrate it. I haven't since, well... since my parents died because after that I just didn't want it anymore. But somehow people always found out when it was and sent me gag gifts. You know, thermoses full of dog barf, a sock with holes in it, used tissues, stuff like that. Oh, one time I even got a bullet with a sweet little note attached to it saying my birthday wish might as well be the same as theirs. That one was my favorite."

"Why would anyone do something like that?"

"Don't you know by now? People don't like me. I was actually surprised no one here tried to pull anything on me."

"They're professionals, Mike, they're not going to play pranks on your birthday."

"Professionals? Really? Come on, I know you don't believe that. Everyone here hates me, and the only reason they didn't do anything to me is because they didn't know it was my birthday. What?" He asked, seeing Harvey's thoughtful face.

"You really think everyone hates you?"

Mike shrugged. "Well, mostly everyone. You don't, of course, because in order to hate something you would actually have to care about it. But if you did have any kind of emotion in that stone heart of yours, you would probably hate me along with everyone else."

Harvey, having spent so much time around his associate, was very fluent in Mike-speak. Mike was always telling him that he didn't believe his not-caring charade, that he _knew_ he cared. So this was Mike's way of including Harvey in the group of people he thought hated him, but saying it in a way that made it look like he wasn't. He thought his present would have told Mike the truth, but it looked like he was going to have to do it himself. "I could never hate you, Mike."

"Yeah, yeah."

"I mean it. And I would never give you a gift like the ones you described to me."

"Why did you get me a present anyway?

Harvey wasn't quite ready to tell him that yet. "Do I really need to say it?"

"Well, no, considering I've seen through you since day one. But it'd be nice to hear."

"Will you open the present first?"

Mike let a small smile cross his lips. "Okay. I hope it's still there."

"It should be," Harvey said walking toward where the bin was, "I don't think anyone's touched that box in years. See," they finally made it and there was the golden box, seeming to shine gloriously in the darkened room, "there it is."

Mike nodded before picking it up. He squinted at it, wondering why it seemed to look like a beacon of light in the fog of his life compared to the wicked torture device it seemed to be earlier. He was about to untie the bow when he thought of something. "Hey, why were you looking through my file? You already know everything you needed to know..."

"I wanted to know more."

"Why?"

"Because. Will you just open the present?"

"But why didn't you just ask Donna what you wanted to know? The woman knows everything! In fact..." Mike realized, "I wouldn't be surprised if she knew about my past birthdays, and that's why no one else knew about it..."

Harvey laughed. "You're probably right."

"Harvey..."

"Mike," he placed a hand on Mike's shoulder, "open the present."

"Right." Mike nodded. He stuck his thumb under the knot and pulled, unraveling the bow and watching it fall to the floor. He used his nail to rip the paper, tearing it off the box as it joined the bow. When he opened the box, he didn't see anything at first. But then he saw a suspicious piece of paper. "What's this? A plane ticket?"

"Yeah."

"Canada? Do you want to get rid of me that badly?" Mike asked jokingly.

"Of course not. I just... you work hard, Mike. And you're tired. You complain sometimes, but you still work hard and you're _good_ at it. So I've been thinking... you deserve some time off."

Mike was awestruck. "You're giving me a vacation?"

"A paid vacation, at that?"

"Really?"

"You don't look very excited..."

"Well," Mike said, examining the ticket, "it's not that I'm not excited, but... I have to go alone..."

Harvey smirked and reached into his pocket, pulling out an identical slip of paper. "I guess if you want to go alone, you can, but..."

"You're going with me?" Mike's voice was now filled with the excitement Harvey had expected to hear.

"That's the plan. I was going to give you both tickets so you could invite someone, but I didn't want you to invite someone who wasn't me, so I kept it."

"Good idea," Mike admitted. "I wouldn't have invited anyone. I probably would have given you the second ticket so you could get your money back."

"You wouldn't even have asked me?"

Mike snorted. "Especially not you."

Harvey's face fell. "Why not me?"

"Harvey, you've never given the impression that you like being around me at work, what would possibly make me think you'd want to be with me during your free time."

"You tell me all the time you don't believe that I don't care about you."

"That doesn't mean I thought you'd ever admit it."

"Well I am admitting it," he took the box and ticket from Mike's hands, setting them aside. He wrapped his arms around Mike's waist, chuckling lightly at Mike's surprised face.

Despite the shock he was feeling, Mike's arms automatically went up over Harvey's shoulders, resting as they fell easily around his neck. He knew he wouldn't be able to find his voice right now, so he settled for whispering, "It seems like you're admitting to a lot more than just caring, Harvey."

"And if I am?"

Mike blinked, unsure of what to say. "Um..."

"You know that I don't normally do caring, or anything related to it. But when I do, I do it right. I own up to it. I don't get attached to people that way because it's just not in my nature. But it's not because I'm afraid, Mike. You think I'm afraid to admit my feelings, but Harvey Specter isn't afraid of anything."

"I hear a 'but,' coming..." Mike said.

"But..." Harvey annunciated, "That doesn't mean I just jump into things like this either. I _like_ you. And, yes, while I admitted it to myself early on, it took a long time for me to be able to admit it to you. But that's only because I wanted to find the perfect way to tell you. So you would believe me, but I wouldn't scare you away."

"Do you see me running?" Mike allowed himself to lean closer to Harvey, their bodies pressing together as they looked at each other. "I'm not afraid either, Harvey."

Harvey smiled before tightening his arms around Mike and pushed their lips together. He felt Mike's fingers in his hair, something that was off-limits to everyone else. But he liked them there, tugging softly as he got his first, but hopefully not last, taste of his associate. He pulled away, looking into Mike's happy eyes and stealing another small kiss before telling him, "Happy birthday, Mike."


End file.
